Make no mistake, the economy needs help. On Thursday, new weekly unemployment claims data provided more bad news, rising for the first time in almost four months and indicating a softening job market. Of course, claims all along have been showing that the economy is in deep trouble. Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute reminds us this is “the 18th week in a row that unemployment claims have been more than twice the worst week of the Great Recession.”
Forbes
July 24, 2020
- Nina Banks, “Black women’s labor market history reveals deep-seated race and gender discrimination,” Economic Policy Institute, February 19, 2019, available at https://www.epi.org/blog/black-womens-labor-market-history-reveals-deep-seated-race-and-gender-discrimination/.
- Elise Gould and Heidi Shierholz, “Not everybody can work from home: Black and Hispanic workers are much less likely to be able to telework,” Economic Policy Institute, March 19, 2020, available at https://www.epi.org/blog/black-and-hispanic-workers-are-much-less-likely-to-be-able-to-work-from-home/.
Center for American Progress
July 24, 2020
“Each dollar of unemployment insurance boosts economy-wide spending by $2,” said Lily Roberts, director of economic mobility at the Center for American Progress. “The Economic Policy Institute estimates that letting the $600 unemployment insurance extension expire would by itself lead to more job loss than happened in the recessions of the early 1990s or early 2000s.”
CNET
July 24, 2020
One of the biggest reasons African Americans are more affected by the coronavirus than other races is because a large portion of African Americans are essential workers and are at a higher risk of being exposed to the virus, Besser said. Blacks are overrepresented in essential front-line positions in grocery stores, convenience and drug stores, and health care and child services, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute.
The Philadelphia Tribune
July 24, 2020
As the coronavirus spreads and the economy recloses, unemployment remains at historic highs, according to Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.
MultiBriefs: Exclusive
July 24, 2020
These data points aren’t just isolated indicators of racial inequality, but part of a much larger problem. “It literally shows up in everything that we could look at,” says Valerie Wilson, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute who recently co-published a report with Elise Gould on how the Covid-19 pandemic disproportionately affected Black workers in the US due to racism.
Quartz
July 24, 2020
Teachers now make 4.5 percent on average less than they did more than 10 years ago, according to the National Education Association, and public school teachers earn 17 percent less than what comparable workers earn, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Good Men Project
July 24, 2020
As layoffs continue, some economists fear that reduced payments won’t be enough to help struggling Americans as more states halt reopenings and businesses shutter. In May and June, 7.5 million unemployed Americans went back to work, and roughly 70% of that group would have made more drawing unemployment, according to Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy for the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
USA Today
July 24, 2020
The Black-white wage gap in 2019 was about 26%, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Indianapolis Recorder
July 24, 2020
Executive pay was controversial before the pandemic. The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute said in a report last year that CEOs’ incomes had grown 940 percent since 1978, while workers’ median wages rose just 12 percent.
San Antonio Express-News
July 24, 2020